End of the season at Broadway Station

 Week commencing 6th November 2023

That's it for the season for this year at Broadway , the lads are down at Stanway Viaduct cutting us off from the rest of the railway till next year .

So just the 2 off us today  , time to put the station furniture under the canopy to keep them out of the worst of the winter weather.

Where it used to take 4 people to move the benches the trolleys make it now a one man job , first the benches and then the bins.

The morning was interrupted by the little diesel shunter delivering some trucks onto platform 2.

Over the closed season there could be a possibility of the footings for the Platform 2 building being dug out , not being able to remove the spoil the conventional way , it was decided to fill the wagons with the dug out material and depose of it at a later time some where on the railway.

Brian and myself had a little trip to Winchcombe to pick up the scaffolding and use it to take down and remove the none working station clocks.

Wednesday

A few more folk around.

Chris and his son Dave joined us , Chris had a go at removing the Moss that seames to grow under the benches.

Whilst Dave assisted Brian and myself , building additional  racking for our shop

It was too damp to cut grass or brush cut the big stuff , so Pat fettled the existing machinery. 

The previous day he had gone down to Hayles Abbey Halt to give their grass a pre winter cut.

Back on the drive Chris was clearing up the leaves dropped from the garden trees.

The bottom of the drive notice board had its first coat of black paint , before being fully painted I managed to paint a picture of a famous Locomotive !!

Dave

Between Openreach and our IT guys our Broadband is out of action , hence no live camera feed , apologies .

Not Enough Volunteers for a game of Cards !

 Week Commencing 30yh October 2023

Into the last week of the regular season , the week after our Autumn Showcase weekend which where I was standing on the crossing at Cheltenham Racecourse seamed to be well patronized.. Plenty of happy faces which is always good to see.

Not so many faces were seen around on Monday and Wednesday , just Brian , Ron and myself.

Down with the posters as per the norm , first the 2 on the road bridge  , just leaves the Santa special and the one for the Museum.

Otherwise it was a day for doing the new signs .

Brian was working on the sign for the bottom of the drive showing the way up to the station , whilst Dave and Ron were putting together a new notice board to replace the board also on the fence at the bottom of the drive.

Ron working on the sign , this was Ron's last day as he heads home to Hong Kong , where in that neck of the world he will celebrate his 80th Birthday . Our volunteers don't get any younger .

Wednesday

A different 3 , Brian , Pat and myself.

A bit of removing an old sign start to the day . The Old Station House has been sold and is no longer a Bed and Breakfast so we can now take down the sign which has been at the bottom of the drive foe many years.

Down it came.

Pat got the brush cutter out in between the showers

Brian releived Julie in the shop for 5 mins or was it 10 mins or 15 mins !!!

Dave give his board a lick of primer and undercoat.

Whilst later in the day , Neal appeared and was seen over on platform 2 measuring up ?

The trains on duty today were the " DMU " and a welcome return of  " 2807 " after its overhaul.

Dave

Tidying up for The Autumn Showcase !

 Week Commencing 23rd October 2023

Just 5 days to go to the Autumn Showcase , so the 5 volunteers who turned out on Monday turned there hands to a bit of tidying up.

It was decided to leave the drive until the Wednesday in case the weather blew more cones and needles off the trees , so we began to clear away everything from behind the containers on platform 2.

Over the years stuff ! had been dumped out of sight behind and the undergrowth had taken over.

All hands to the shifting of old scaffolding and sheets plus other rubbish.

Except 1 ! , Pat was on the other side giving the bank a cut.

Where did all the burnable rubbish go ,? to the bonfire area where Ron had a go at lighting it . but the wind was against him , the smoke started to drift to our neighbors properties so it was quickly extinguished.

After the big clean up we went down to the road by the bridge , the area of grass before the bridge is kept tidy by ourselves , and some rather large concrete blocks had appeared , that needed dug out to prevent damage to our grass cutting equipment. Ian and Ron were on the case and several block were removed..

Finally Dave had finished the new Broadway Station picture board , just ready for the Autumn Showcase , it shows a picture time line from 1904 through the various years to 2023

Wednesday

We arrived on Wednesday to steady drizzle , no chance we could use Billy to pick up the needles !

So it was back to the old fashion way.

Ron , Brian, Dave and Young Dave on the brushes and wheelbarrows.

Elsewhere Chris was back on platform 1 doing a bit of weeding. And Pat elsewhere cutting more vegetation down.

I was called away at lunchtime so I don't know what they were up to in the afternoon , but I'm sure the Station will look its best for the weekend.

Locomotives on duty today were " P and O " and " Foremarke Hall "

Dave

Having a tidy up !

 Week Commencing 9th October 2023

Just the 4 of us on a rain threatening day , just dry enough to have another bonfire , must be that time of year !

Brian had a mysterious parcel , which when opened had nothing in it !

Big job of the day was to tidy up the northern end of platform 2 , which had become the scrapyard of the station , after acquiring one of the flat bed trucks  , it was loaded up with scrap metal and no usable material and then taken down to the skips at Toddington. 

Below is a picture of the area after , no rubbish to see here anymore.

Whilst at Toddington we popped in to see how 2807 was coming on .

It looked as it had been out and a few things were in the process of being sorted out .

Wednesday

A bit of car bother on the way , so just caught a few things going on .

Weather not brilliant , so Pat did a bit of brushing up on platform 1.

Brian gave his new board more coats of paint.

Pat then deemed it dry enough to brush cut the back of the tidied up area .

Out today were  " P and O  " and the  " DMU "

Dave

Digging up the Past !

 Week commencing 1st October 2023

Just a month to go ,until no more trains will be using our station but a volunteers job is never done.

5 turned out today , Pat and Chris were on the big hedge , which is now at last getting thinner . What it is doing is reveling a lot of old debris from what we think was the old station !

Many of the old bricks and lumps of concrete can be pulled out , but this large bolt was attached to something more substantial and will need looking at later .

 

The biggest bit of debris was a piece of down pipe ! Not from the station itself ( it had square pipe ) but we think it might have come from the Footbridge .

Brian was Striming on the top of the bank , whilst nearby Ian was giving the barrier a fresh coat of wood treatment ready for the up coming winter months.

Painting completed for the day he was seen later enjoying 

 a piece of David's Birthday cake.

Wednesday

Before the customers arrived for the day Ron and Dave with Billys help gave platform 1 and the drive a quick tidy up.

Brian was a bit lower on the bank with his strimmer .

Dave gave 2 gates and the Booking Hall door a bit of Maintainace . Below the gate to the signal Box locker room , now with 4 washers on the hinge ! has the signal box grown or hinge post sunk ?

Whilst we were in the area the Tarmac in front of the signal box was given a brush down.

Pat was over on the bank strimming until the fuel ran out.

One thing that was buried in the bank was an old telegraph pole tensioner , not a nice object to hit with the strimmer . Unable to dig it out , we dug a hole by the side of it so we would be able to get the disk cutter in cut the top off , and remove the majority of it.

Locomotives around today were the DMU and Foremarke Hall.

Dave